NBA: The offseason is officially here, time for teams to get to work

Kevin Durant already has been traded to Houston. The New York Knicks are looking for a coach. Cooper Flagg is about to become the No. 1 pick in the draft. Expansion plans likely will take a big step forward in a few weeks. The Los Angeles Lakers just got sold. The NBA offseason officially has started. In reality, it's been going for a few weeks already. There's a parade in Oklahoma City on Tuesday to celebrate the newly crowned champion Thunder, and in every other NBA city there's going to be a parade of movement — some of which already has started — over the coming weeks to try to catch the champs. "These are difficult equations," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said as the Warriors were starting their summer more than a month ago. "You look around the league, and you see some teams that have mortgaged their future, and they're in some trouble. There are other teams that have done so, and they're championship contenders." Outside of Oklahoma City — where virtually the entire rotation is expected to be back, led by MVP, Finals MVP, scoring champion and NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just put together one of the best individual seasons of all time — there are plenty of questions everywhere. Among them: ** Will the Spurs get Victor Wembanyama back at full strength after he missed the last two months of the regular season with deep vein thrombosis in one of his shoulders? (The answer is believed to be yes.) ** How will Boston, Milwaukee and Eastern Conference champion Indiana fare now that Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton are set to miss most, if not all of, next season with Achilles tendon injuries? (The answer is probably not great.) ** Who will New York get to replace the fired Tom Thibodeau? (The answer is anyone's guess, especially after multiple teams refused to let their under-contract coaches interview for that gig.) The injury situations for the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers certainly have teams thinking that the East could be more of a wide-open race in 2025-26. Orlando made a big move earlier this month, landing Desmond Bane from Memphis to play with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. And the Magic made that move knowing it would take them into the luxury tax, but that's the price they're willing to pay to try to win now. "We put our foot on the gas here," Magic president Jeff Weltman said. "So, as I've always said, that train is coming for everybody. We probably skipped a station here and I hope that our team is good enough to merit where the finances will take us." Houston finished 16 games behind Oklahoma City in the Western Conference and still got the No. 2 seed for the playoffs. The Rockets are hoping to close that gap now that they've added one of the greatest scorers in league history in Durant — who was the subject of trade talks for some time. "Being part of the Houston Rockets, I'm looking forward to it," Durant said in an interview with Fanatics at Fanatics Fest, where he was on stage for a scheduled discussion when the news broke Sunday. "Crazy, crazy couple of weeks, but I'm glad it's over with." The Durant trade was probably the biggest in the NBA since the Lakers landed Luka Doncic earlier this year. The team that traded Doncic was the Dallas Mavericks, who went on to win the draft lottery and the right to land Flagg, the one-and-done star out of Duke. Flagg will be the No. 1 pick Wednesday night, just like LeBron James was 22 years ago. James has a decision to make on his player option for next season with the Lakers in the coming days, though all signs point to him returning and becoming the first 23-season player in NBA history. "At this point of my career, you think about when the end is. That's human nature," James told The Associated Press last week in an interview promoting his partnership with Amazon. "You think: Is it this year? Or next year? Those thoughts always creep into your mind at this point of the journey. But I have not given it a specific timetable, date. I'm seeing how my body and family reacts, too." The Lakers struck a deal last week for Mark Walter to become the majority owner, a move that would end a 46-year run of team control by the Buss family. There are sales pending for the Minnesota Timberwolves (which is expected to be done in the next few days, with Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez set to finally close on that agreement) and the Celtics as well. There likely will be discussions on both at the board of governors meeting in Las Vegas next month, and that's also where the NBA is expected to officially open a process of exploring possible expansion. "It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room," Commissioner Adam Silver said. "We have committees that are already talking about it. But my sense is at that meeting, they're going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore it." Free agency starts in earnest Monday, summer leagues in Utah and California open a few days later and then the every-team-goes NBA Summer League in Las Vegas — where Flagg likely will debut as a Mavericks player — opens July 10. There will be a schedule release likely in August, then camps open in late September. It's the offseason. Nobody is really off, at least not for a few more weeks anyway. "You get away from the game a little bit," Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. "And then you're rebuilding everything for another great run."